The absence of benchmarks for Web sites with dynamic content has been a major impediment to research in this area. We describe three benchmarks for evaluating the performance of Web sites with dynamic content. The benchmarks model three common types of dynamic content Web sites with widely varying application characteristics: an online bookstore, an auction site, and a bulletin board. For the online bookstore, we use the TPC-W specification. For the auction site and the bulletin board, we provide our own specification, modeled after ebay.com and slahdot.org, respectively. For each benchmark we describe the design of the database and the interactions provided by the Web server.We have implemented these three benchmarks with a variety of methods for building dynamic-content applications, including PHP, Java servlets and EJB (Enterprise Java Beans). In all cases, we use commonly used open-source software. We also provide a client emulator that allows a dynamic content Web server to be driven with various workloads. Our implementations are available freely from our Web site for other researchers to use.These benchmarks can be used for research in dynamic Web and application server design. In this paper, we provide one example of such possible use, namely discovering the bottlenecks for applications in a particular server configuration. Other possible uses include studies of clustering and caching for dynamic content, comparison of different application implementation methods, and studying the effect of different workload characteristics on the performance of servers. With these benchmarks we hope to provide a common reference point for studies in these areas.

The feasibility of participation by local fishermen in scientific fisheries data collection for stock assessment is described. Artisanal fishermen from the Bangweulu Swamps, Zambia, collected length‐frequency data for 1 year from their catch using the main fishing methods employed in the swamps as well as experimental gears. It is shown that with this method, it is possible to obtain large quantities of reliable and relatively cheap length‐frequency data that allow for a full length‐based stock assessment, including cohort analysis. There are also indications that with a proper feedback of the findings by the research institutions to the fishing communities, this sampling method might enhance the awareness of exploitation patterns and the management consequences. This may be seen as a first step in preparing the communities to take up their role in a community‐based approach in the management of the fish resources.

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